Can robots learn from the internet the same way ChatGPT learned from text?
In this episode, Andrew Wooten, co-founder of Rhoda AI, explains why his company believes the future of robotics isn’t collecting millions of hours of robot data ... it’s learning from internet-scale video. Instead of relying on traditional vision-language-action (VLA) models that require enormous training datasets, Rhoda’s approach teaches robots physical intuition by predicting the future through video.
We also explore why, in Andrew's opinion, warehouses and factories will likely be the first major market for humanoid robots (not homes!), why Rhoda chose a wheel-based humanoid design, how language models fit into physical AI, and how the company’s robots can learn complex tasks with just 8–10 hours of training data instead of 10,000+ hours.
If you’re interested in robotics, AI, automation, or the future of manufacturing, this conversation offers a fascinating look at where physical AI is heading.
In this episode:
* Why warehouses beat homes as the first market for humanoid robots
* Why Rhoda chose wheels instead of legs
* The biggest limitation of today’s robot AI models
* How internet-scale video teaches robots physics
* Why predicting the future helps robots manipulate the real world
* Edge AI vs. cloud robotics
* The role of LLMs in controlling robots
* How Rhoda cut robot training from 10,000+ hours to just 8–10 hours
* When zero-shot robot learning could become reality
Guest
Andrew Wooten
Co-founder, Rhoda AI
Website: https://rhoda.ai
00:00 Why Humanoid Robots Don’t Have Wheels
00:18 Can Robots Learn From Internet Video?
00:42 Best Use Cases for Humanoid Robots
02:10 Why Warehouses and Factories Come First
04:02 The Economic Impact of Robotics
05:00 Home Robots vs. Industrial Robots
06:05 Why Rhoda AI Chose Wheels
08:00 Building a General-Purpose Robot
09:55 Why Full-Stack Robotics Companies Have an Advantage
10:40 The Evolution of Physical AI
12:20 Why Vision-Language-Action Models Fall Short
14:05 Training Robots With Internet-Scale Video
16:05 How Rhoda AI’s Video-Action Model Works
17:25 Edge AI vs. Cloud Computing
19:05 How Robots Develop Physical Intuition
20:40 Predicting the Near Future in Real Time
22:00 Can Robots Build a Subconscious?
23:10 Using Language Models to Control Robots
25:15 Rhoda AI’s Hardware Strategy
26:20 The Biggest Problems With Today’s Humanoids
28:20 When Will Robots Truly Learn on the Job?
30:05 Training Complex Tasks in 8–10 Hours
31:15 Zero-Shot Robot Learning and What Comes Next
